Guillermo Alberto Keller, Marcelo L Ponte, Guillermo Di Girolamo
Several drugs acting on the nervous system have been implicated in the prolongation of the QT interval. Leaving aside the antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs, some have shown to prolong the QT interval in vivo. These include opioids, particularly methadone, inhalational anesthetics, and some preparations used for treatment of cough. These drugs have a narrow therapeutic interval or possible drug interactions that lead to clinical toxicity manifested by arrhythmias. They share the ability to block potassium channels (HERG), prolong the action potential and QT interval, and generate arrhythmias and Torsades de Pointes like other typicality recognized like antiarrhythmics, antihistamines, prokinetics, psychotropics and anti-infectives agents...
January 2010: Current Drug Safety